Dr Atif Mian Row: Who is Changing, Pak Or Khan?

7 mins read
Changing

Sumera B Reshi                                Changing

And that is what Pakistan did. It failed three thoughtful and committed people. After the dismissal of Dr Atif Mian, followed by the resignation of Dr Asim Ijaz Khawaja and Dr Imran Rasul, the much talked and fantabulous Economic Advisory Council constituted by the newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan has lost its charm following the controversy regarding the faith of Dr Atif Mian.

Khan’s cowardice proved he is no different than the rest of the lot and his renunciation to Mullah’s is particularly incriminatory. Khan has contradicted its own position on separating merit from religion and securing minority rights, the government has now established, quite clearly, that it would be doing none of what it had vowed.

Experts believe that the ruling Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has bowed down to the intense pressure to replace the renowned US-based economist Atif Mian—who is an Ahmadi from the newly constituted Economic Advisory Council (EAC).

PTI’s senator Faisal Javed Khan announced the decision on social media. In a tweet, he confirmed the development and said that Atif Mian was asked to step down from the Advisory Council and he has agreed.

A replacement would be announced later. Some politicians including former minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal praised the government for appointing credible individual on merit.

Media pundits largely favored the appointment and praised the PTI government for showing defiance against the social media storm but Dr Atif’s removal proved Khan’s ‘tabdeeli’ slogan is as crumbly as was previous governments’.

In order to keep his promise of bringing the best of the best Pakistani talent on-board to help country steer out of the crisis, the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan constituted the 18-member EAC including top economic experts in the panel.

The news about the removal of Dr Mian from EAC astonished every sane person in Pakistan and outside Pakistan.

Soon after Atif’s inclusion, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Senator Faisal Javed Khan announced the government has decided to withdraw Dr Mian from the EAC after a hefty number of people opposed his appointment taking into account his religious beliefs. Initially, the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf stood its ground and defended the appointment strongly but after a few days it succumbed to the pressure and requested the professor to quit.

Some say that the withdrawal was ‘mutual’ but experts firmly believe that Atif’s dismissal was a ‘forced’ one.

Following the decision, a public outcry instigated on social media opposing the government’s action of removing the Princeton professor’s name from the council. Disgusting it is that after facing a host of controversies shortly after assuming power, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is once again caught in the eye of the storm.

The latest controversy to hit the Imran Khan led government revolves around induction of Atif R Mian, an ace economist, into the newly constituted Economic Advisory Council (EAC).

The ultimate goal of the EAC is to promote analytically sound and evidence-based reforms and initiatives for the progress and development of Pakistan and Khan appointed the panellists just to get Pakistan out of the crisis.

It is a known fact that Khan won because of his tabdeeli ideology and his aim was to become people’s leader and not just PTI boss holding the chair.

A la Chinese President Xi Jinping who has led an aggressive anti-corruption campaign and India’s Narendra Modi who pledged to take India out from corruption, Khan also wanted to fight corruption, reform government spending and improve the lives of the poor.

Given the demands that are likely to come with any bailout of the $300 billion economies. Khan’s economic vision has the potential of transforming Pakistan’s stuttering economy.

But his road to redeeming Pakistan’s economy could tousle a lot of feathers, including that of the Pakistan army which has a major role to play in Khan’s rise to the top.

Khan certainly faces an uphill task – the nation he will lead sits at the bottom of the pile on several important social and economic parameters.

The World Bank estimates that Pakistan’s GDP growth rate will decline to 5 per cent in 2019 from 5.7 per cent in 2017. In 2018, Pakistan won’t grow more than 5 per cent.

In 2020, it will grow at 5.4 per cent – significantly lower than other South Asian nations like India and Bangladesh.

One of the key aspects of Khan’s economic reform program which he dubbed as a “five-point emergency plan” in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) manifesto, which could ruffle many feathers and generate a political backlash from his opponents, pertains to radically reform the way Pakistan spends its Rs 4.75 trillion (1 USD equals 129 Pakistani rupees) budget.

Khan has promised that among other things, he would be looking to reduce the defence budget of Pakistan.

While Khan hasn’t specified how he intends to get Pakistan’s all-powerful military to reconcile to this, his plan is to trim Pakistan’s $9.6 billion military budget which accounts for almost a fifth of the country’s total budget.

Besides, Khan has proposed reducing the number of ministries in Pakistan to just 17 from the present 37.

Khan had also promised to abolish discretionary funds and development funds given to Parliamentarians. Discretionary funds have often been cited as a major tool of exerting political influence and corruption in Pakistan.

While his party has stressed on these radical expenditure control measures, Khan’s vision to boost Pakistan’s revenue through a massive overhaul of the country’s tax system could perhaps set an example for India.

Therefore, to bring back money sent abroad illegally was the top priority of Imran Khan.

Thus the council is expected to play a pivotal role in strengthening the government capacity to design and introduce sound and effective policies for rapid and continued social and economic advancement, human resource development, and improvement of business processes and to ensure the availability of best possible professional advice to the government on economic policies.

However, owing to the recent backlash on Dr Atif’s appointment, the wheel of the reform might be a bit slow.

Undoubtedly, the appointment of Dr Atif Mian was part of Khan’s efforts to direct the country out of economic crisis but a large number of people have opposed the inclusion of Dr Mian, a member of a minority community.

“The uproar over the appointment had left the distinguished academic ‘uncomfortable’, said Special Assistant to Prime Minister of Pakistan on Media Iftikhar Durrani”. He also termed the decision ‘mutual’.

Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of Prime Minister Imran Khan, also termed withdrawal of Atif Mian as a member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) as ‘Indefensible’ and very disappointing.

Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry restated the government’s resolve of secure minority rights. “Protecting minority is an integral part of Islam. Pakistan is an Islamic state. We must ensure rights of all minorities are secured,” the minister said.

“Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority,” added Fawad Chaudhary.

Chaudhry had taken to Twitter to recall that “Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah appointed Sir Zafar Ullah [also an Ahmadi] as Foreign minister of Pakistan; we’ll follow [the] principles of Mr Jinnah, not of extremists.” Chaudhry was seconded by Minister of Human Rights Shireen Mazari, who tweeted: “Exactly. Well, put indeed. Time to reclaim space for the Quaid’s Pakistan!”

With the intention to sack Dr Atif Mian from the council, a social media smear campaign had erupted against the economist’s appointment. In this connection, a call-to-attention notice had also been submitted in the Senate by opposition parties against Mian’s inclusion in the EAC.

The notice bore the signatures of the PML-N, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party members. However, a large number of supporters had also defended Mian’s appointment on social media, saying that one’s religion should not factor into their professional qualifications or employment.

Pakistan came into being on the premise that it will protect the minority since Muslims were in minority in India.

The founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah didn’t fight along, however, he was supported by other minority groups (Christians and others) because they felt dejected by majority Hindus.

Soon after Pakistan came into existence, Jinnah addressed to entire Pakistan – “You are free; you are free to go to your temples; free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in the State of Pakistan.

]You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state.

This was M.A. Jinnah’s mission and surely not a Pakistan controlled by Mullah’s. Nonetheless, Dr Atif’s dismissal by a daunting and honest Khan’s led government proved sceptics right and has indicated that his ‘Naya’ Pakistan is cowardly when confronted with religious bigotry.

Dr Atif’s sacking will have its repercussions. Atif is an ace academic and an author of the critically acclaimed book ‘House of Debt’. Atif is also a staunch critic of CPEC.

As per Atif, the project relies on foreign loans and is quite suspicious of the project gains. Khan came into power with a slogan to take Pakistan out of chaos. Certainly, his government is faced with a looming debt crisis.

Khan has pledged to introduce key reforms to address Pakistan’s economic woes, however, removal is a big blow to the Khan and his government.

Here goes an adage that ‘history repeats’ soon or later and the saying proved right. In November 2017, Imran supported extremist cleric Khadim Rizvi when he held hostage the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, with his sit-in protest against perceived changes to the finality of prophethood law of Pakistan, which declares Ahmadis non-Muslims.

And Journalist Gul Bukhari explained Khan’s decision in a tweet, “This principled statement of support will forever remain a slap in the face of Imran Khan the coward, who first carried out a dishonest khatm e nabuwat campaign against the PML – N, and has now fired Atif Mian because he is Ahmadi.”

“Didn’t take much for ‘tabdeeli’ to succumb to bigotry. Back to square one. The same old fears and politics prevail in Naya Pakistan. What an anti-climax,” tweeted Satirist and columnist Nadeem Farooq Paracha.

Certainly, Khan’s second decision was welcomed by Islamists and religious conservatives, but a prominent journalist, Kamran Khan in Pakistan, voiced concerns about the growing influence of hardline Islamist parties in the country’s political arena. He tweeted, “It is a very sad day.

Today Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan locked doors for Pakistan’s minorities and also broke Jinnah’s promise to the minorities.”

The condemnation for Khan’s decision doesn’t end here. Sareena Niazi, a Pakistani journalist and a columnist for Dawn, criticized Khan for not being able to stand up to pressure from religious groups.

According to Niazi, Khan isn’t going through any political upheavals, no issues with the judiciary or the mighty military and surely have a wide public support and yet he bowed before a handful of religious extremists.

Khan’s failure to take a stand on an appointment that he himself made, shows he lacks courage. Khan also knew that Atif’s removal will have consequences yet he let him go. Khan’s decision doesn’t go either with his ‘manifesto’ or his ‘tabdeeli’ slogan.

Khan has been chanting the mantra of ‘change’ but he clearly showed that vis-à-vis extremists, his policy will remain unchanged. And who whether there will be any change or not.  It seems Pakistan largely will remain unchanged under the slogan of ‘change’.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

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